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Friday, June 01, 2012

Statement on Calvinism draws approval, criticism

A group of current and former Southern Baptist leaders has signed a statement
affirming what they call the "traditional Southern Baptist" understanding of the
doctrine of salvation, with the goal of drawing a distinction with the beliefs
of "New Calvinism."

The statement was posted May 31 at SBCToday.com and
includes a preamble and 10 articles, along with signatures from two entity
presidents (Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary's Paige Patterson and New
Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary's Chuck Kelley), four state executive
directors (Georgia's Bob White, Mississippi's Jim Futral, Louisiana's David
Hankins, Alaska's Mike Procter), and in addition to Patterson, five other former
SBC presidents (Bailey Smith, Jimmy Draper, Jerry Vines, Morris Chapman and
Bobby Welch).

The document was titled, "A Statement of the Traditional
Southern Baptist Understanding of God's Plan of Salvation." (Read the entire
document at the bottom of this story.)

"For the most part, Southern
Baptists have been glad to relegate disagreements over Calvinism to secondary
status along with other important but 'non-essential' theological matters," the
document reads in the preamble. "The Southern Baptist majority has fellowshipped
happily with its Calvinist brethren while kindly resisting Calvinism itself.
And, to their credit, most Southern Baptist Calvinists have not demanded the
adoption of their view as the standard. We would be fine if this consensus
continued, but some New Calvinists seem to be pushing for a radical alteration
of this long-standing arrangement."

The document further asserts that the
"vast majority of Southern Baptists are not Calvinists and that they do not want
Calvinism to become the standard view in Southern Baptist life."

"We
believe it is time to move beyond Calvinism as a reference point for Baptist
soteriology," the statement reads. Soteriology is the study of the doctrine of
salvation. Read more